Author: Mackenzie Mahon, NPTS Student Association President
Photo: Some of our new students and representative family members were recognized at Fall Convocation
Greetings to our students at the start of this new school year!
As we head into our third week of courses, I’ve been reflecting on the invitation in Dr. Michelle Clifton-Soderstrom’s convocation message to see all those in our student body as the gift that they are to our community. If you missed Michelle’s sermon, I highly recommend watching it here. It was an important call to love mercy and do justice and embrace learning during this seminary experience, with our classmates near and far.
And what a diverse student body we are gifted with. This year we’re happy to welcome in over 160 new students in our degree and certificate programs, including some new and exciting educational partnerships.
In the fall of 2017, North Park, in collaboration with the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church, started a cohort style delivery of our degree programs called Ignite. These students journey through seminary together, taking classes online and in intensives in California. I got to meet one of the women in the program this past weekend, and it was such a delight to hear about how these students are forming community and growing together. Ignite has since expanded to Ignite West and now includes the Pacific Northwest and Alaska Conferences of the ECC. 40 students from Cohort 1 finished up their Foundational Courses Certificate (what we affectionately call the “core four”) in the spring of 2018 and are now pursuing full degree programs; 40 new students start their Foundational Courses Certificate this fall. We’re delighted to have you all as part of the NPTS family!
We’re also excited to welcome into our student body the students at the School of Restorative Arts. NPTS, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Corrections and Stateville Correctional Center, has begun offering a four-year degree program at Stateville. 40 men are starting their Master of Arts in Christian Ministry degrees, with a Certificate in Restorative Arts, this fall. Our community has been blessed to have had some of these men as certificate students in the past, and we are eager to see how God will continue to use them and their ministry to teach us all as they dive into their full program. What a gift it is to learn together.
In addition to these programs, we’re grateful for all our other degree and certificate students. We have students pursuing MDivs and MACF programs, MATS and MACM degrees, dual-degrees and DMin candidates, and many students in our certificate programs. Our students come from California and Washington, Wisconsin and Nebraska, Alaska and Chicago. Some are studying here on campus, and others are learning together online, pursuing their education from their homes in Milwaukee or Mexico.
All our students are a gift to the kingdom of God. All our students bring their unique calls and stories to the table. All have something to teach us.
As we dive into week three, it can be tempting to put our heads down and focus on all the work that is (somehow) already due. These academics are important, it’s true. Yet my challenge for myself, and for all of us, is to see how and what God is teaching us through our community. These relationships are significant and formative. So linger a little, whether it’s after chapel on Thursdays or after an intensive at Mission Springs. Invest in those conversations on online discussion boards and in Facebook groups. If you’re in the Chicago area, join your classmates for a course at Stateville. Connect with your distance and commuter and on-campus and cohort colleagues during intensives in Chicago and at Midwinter. We are, together, the NPTS community.
Would we look at the breadth and diversity of our student body and rejoice in the gift that it is to be formed and shaped by these women and men of God.
So welcome back, North Parkers. It is good to be in community with you.